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Local company wins Olympic contract

Ecosign brings wealth of international experience to design of Whistler Nordic Centre

A local company with an international reputation will be planning and participating in the design of the Whistler Nordic Centre for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games.

Tucked into a small Alpine Meadows office, Ecosign Mountain Resort Planners will dream up their vision for the heart of the Callaghan Valley where the cross-country skiing, ski jumping and the biathlon and Nordic combined competitions will take place.

Though it’s undoubtedly a huge responsibility, President Paul Mathews is ready for the challenge.

"In the (past) 30 years a local firm has grown up and gotten world-wide experience," said Mathews.

"The rewarding thing is that we worked our tail off to represent our community, (to) bring our world knowledge (and) experience to bear."

The binders neatly lining the bookcase behind Mathews tell Ecosign’s story. Their spines reveal the company’s world-wide experience – Canada West, Europe, China, Japan, South America, Russia.

Ecosign has worked in 25 countries, designing mountain resort communities, as well as facilities for competitive events such as the 2001 Alpine World Championships in St. Anton, Austria.

Now Mathews must take the best parts of each of those venues and create something special that works for the Callaghan Valley.

"I’ve just got to put that multiple vision onto the ground up there," he said.

Don’t doubt that it’s a challenge that’s been causing him some sleepless nights, despite his vast knowledge and experience.

The Whistler company is part of a larger team which is headed up by a Vancouver-based engineering company called Sandwell Engineering. The Vancouver Organizing Committee for the 2010 Olympics announced Aug. 27 that the Sandwell team had been awarded the Nordic Centre contract.

In addition to Ecosign, CJP Architects, Paul Merrick Architects, Thornley BKG Consultants, Ward Consulting, and Keen Engineering are part of the consortium.

"We call Ecosign our master planners," said Peter Lutzmann, Sandwell’s project director.

"Where we have all the engineering talent to actually do the types of drawings that will go out to the construction contractors, we can’t actually start doing those drawings until Ecosign has finished putting together our master plan that shows where the different elements in the valley are going to be located – the roads, the day lodge, the jumps, the trails."

Ecosign has been charged with several tasks.

In creating the master plan for the Callaghan, the company must consider things such as access to the venues, parking and transporting approximately 20,000 to 30,000 spectators on any given day to the area for the 17 days of the Olympic competition.

It may seem like a staggering number of people to coral at one time but Mathews doesn’t balk at the figure.

"This isn’t a big deal," he said, recalling the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo where 40,000 spectators were at the jumps.

And then there’s the site plan for the competitive events.

Ecosign must ensure that the three sites for the Nordic events mesh together and suit the specific standards for each sport’s international federation.

"Therein lies the challenge," he said.

"We’ve done this before though so we’re not neophytes at it."

One of the best designs of Nordic facilities that Mathews has seen was in Utah for the 2002 Winter Games.

There the cross-country and biathlon events shared one venue where the seats for the cross-country events faced south and the seats for the biathlon faced north, with the athletes shooting to the north with the sun to their backs.

"That was the neatest (facility) I’ve ever seen," said Mathews.

He suggested the same kinds of principles could possibly be looked at in the Callaghan Valley.

Currently the Bid Book shows plans for three stadiums with a projected spectator capacity of 12,000 people in each facility.

Ecosign has also been charged with planning the future use of the Callaghan Valley beyond the 2010 Games, and that’s a challenge Mathews finds very exciting.

"I’ve been involved in the Whistler development since before the first council was formed," he said.

"I was the very first chairman of the planning commission here so I know the land use and the issues."

He has many ideas about how to make the area economically viable post-Games, both in the summer time and in winter.

The area could be a boost to cross country skiing. The Callaghan is a great area for that, Mathews said, with good dry snow and fairly gentle terrain.

He is also thinking about the possibilities of turning the alpine jumps into practice jumps in the summer, allowing tourists onto the jumps for a fee and bringing cross country mountain biking to the cross country trails.

"As far as I’m concerned there (are) three or possibly four new things, new sports and activities for guests at Whistler to do," he said.

"I imagine WAVE will have a bus every hour or two that goes to the Whistler Nordic Centre (in the future.)"

Mathews is also aware of the special value of the Callaghan Valley to Whistler.

He admits it’s difficult to build infrastructure for 30,000 people for 17 days but he’s confident there are creative options out there.

"We may even come up with something as exotic as a portable sewage treatment plant that is brought there somehow on wheels (and then removed)," he said.

"(The) Callaghan should… be for our low density recreation."

Whatever the plans may be, there isn’t much time to dream about them.

Ecosign must have the draft master plan on paper within the next three months.

Mathews said that just means it’s full steam ahead. Once the master plan is in, Sandwell estimates it will take 10 months to do the detailed design drawings and specifications that would form the construction tender package.

The facilities are scheduled to be finished by 2007, which will allow two years for events before the Games.